Best Practices

The following Best Practices will guide you in validating the model before submitting a new analysis; cut down on cloud credit costs; and use proper settings for materials.

1. Generally we always suggest running an analysis on a single Level with a coarse resolution (72-inch grid) to make sure everything looks right before doing the whole building.
2. Remember that you can always change Rooms settings after an analysis is complete, without the need to rerun the analysis. If you change Room properties (eg Include In Daylighting, Automated Shades), or add or remove Rooms, just regenerate the results to update the schedules and plan views. Refer to the Managing Results section of this guide.
3. The '_Lighting Analysis Model View' is the view that is exported for analysis. Check to be sure that everything you want included or not is in that view. You can 'Hide In View' any Elements that you don't want to include.
4. If you have any Worksets that are not visible in the view, these elements may still be included. If you have that situation, remove the workset from the model if you don't want to include the elements.
5. All Floor elements visible in the '_Lighting Analysis Model View' will be used to generate analysis points (and therefore cloud credits). If you are using Floor objects for things that are not actual Floors (eg shading devices), or if there are Floor objects outside the building, put these on a separate Layer so you can exclude those layers from the analysis run and reduce credit costs.
6. Since Floors are used to generate analysis points, check that your model does not have un-joined layered floors. This is sometimes done to have a structural slab 'floor' with different finish 'floor' elements on top. In those cases you will get two sets of points, and the cost will be higher. For these conditions, either Hide the finish Floor or the structural Floor, Join all the associated Floor layers, if possible, so they are recognized as a single element by the Lighting Analysis, or put the structural Floor on a separate Layer to be excluded from the analysis run.
7. Check the Materials that are In Use in the model for the following conditions (also refer to the Material Settings section of this guide):
8. • Appearance Properties are used for Render In Cloud and LAR, but the Graphics Properties are what you see in most Revit Visual Styles. Review the appearance of the materials in the '_Lighting Analysis' Model View by either selecting the 'Realistic' visual style, or select the checkbox for 'Use Render Appearance' for all materials on the Graphics tab of the Material editor. The latter method is best, as sometimes people use a Transparency property in the Graphics tab that doesn't match the one in the Appearance tab.
   • Check that no materials are using 'Self Illumination' in the Appearance properties. This will add artificial light to those areas of the model. Check with your rendering team when doing that, as it's usually used as a workaround to make renderings look better.
   • Check that no significant materials (eg walls, windows, etc) are using a Generic Appearance property with 'Transparency'. This will indeed make the object transparent, but not in a physically accurate way. It's fine to use for minor materials like furniture, but not for windows and other primary elements. Instead, for transparent elements, always use a Glass or Glazing material with RGB values corresponding to the transparency for the thickness of the element the material is applied to. You can download and use the Excel tool, "glass-Tvis-settings-in Revit_worksheet," to help calculate that. (FYI, you can add things like frit patterns using an overlay material with a Cutout pattern).
   • If modifying Appearance properties, remember that any Material that uses the same 'Appearance Asset' will also inherit those changes. Best practice is to Copy the Appearance Asset ('Duplicate this Asset' button in the upper right of the Appearance tab), so it is unique before modifying it for an individual Material.